Top sports officials condemn bloodshed

By Joseph Mchekadona

6th April 2012

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TFF president Leodegar Tenga

Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) and Tanzania Olympic Committee (TOC) top officials have instantly condemned the bloodshed in Mogadishu that claimed a life of Somalia Football Federation’s (SFF) chairman Said Mohamed Nur on Wednesday.

In separate statements, the TFF president Leodegar Tenga said the slain of the official, who played a big role in the upgrading of Somali young generation through football, is condemned in the strongest terms.

Nur was also a member of the Council of East and Central Africa Football Association’s (CECAFA) executive committee whose president is Tenga.

Ten people died, including Nur, in the blast alleged to have been masterminded by terrorist group Al Shaabab.

Following the demise of the Somalia FA official all football matches, including the premiership ones, will be preceded by a minute silence in the next seven days.

In a closely related development, the secretary general of the Tanzania Olympics Committee Filbert Bayi has also condemned the killings in the strongest terms.

Bayi said condemned the killing of ten people at the reopening of a theater in Somalia on Wednesday and asked the African Union (AU) to tighten security at sporting gatherings.

Speaking in telephone interview, Bayi said the death of ten people in Somalia should be a wake up call to AU. He said sports gathering should be secured from terrorist attacks.

He said the AU should make sure that they provide enough security at all sports gatherings as the Mogadishu blast is the third to happen at a sports gatherings in the East Africa region.

“We want the AU to provide enough security at all sport gatherings. Similar incidents happened in Uganda and Kenya last year and now in Somalia. We want the AU to protect people so that they can access stadiums and other places to watch sports activities without any fear,” he said.

On Wednesday, a suspected suicide bomb blast in a newly reopened theater killed more than seven people, including Somalia Olympic Committee head Aden Yabarow Wiish and Football federation chief Nur.

Bayi described the suicide blast at the theater as barbaric and should not be repeated at any sports gathering or elsewhere. He said sports bring together people of different cultures, races, region and traditions and should be spared from any violence.

“TOC want to express its in depth grief to the families of Wiish and Nur, family members of those who died during the suicide blast, the International Olympic Committee, International Football Federation (FIFA) and all sports lovers across the globe. We are joining them at this hard time,” said Bayi.

The TOC official said sports has emerged victorious everywhere in the world and hopes that the Somali theater blast will not weaken sporting activities in that country and instead strengthen it.